WE’RE IN JINJA!!!!

It’s going to be a few days between posts and I think the pictures will have to stop for a while. Perhaps if I can get to an internet cafe, I can post some more but the internet speed here at the orphanage is too slow for me to do much. I keep getting bumped off. It’s happened 3 times just trying to log into blogger this morning.

We’ve been here for 2 full days now. The drive here from Kampala is beautiful taking you through the rain forest and over the Nile- which we all got to see for the first time. We are staying in a guest house that is the equivalent of an american motel of sorts. We eat breakfast and dinner there.

Yesterday, our first full day of ministry here, we split our group in two. Erica, Malia, Sarah, Tegan, Tyler, Blaze and I all went by boat to a remote village called Rwanika. It was a 2 and a half hour boat ride just to get there and our engine broke once. But our guide, Pastor Timothy, knows lots of people and got us a new outboard engine. The boat is wooden, like a giant canoe with a pointed front and high sides. It’s about 25 feet long and 5 feet wide with 4 feet high sides and an outboard motor. We ate sugar cane on our ride over and a fish lunch. We were greeted by close to 300 children, all wearing their only set of clothes and many carrying their siblings on their back. The pastor of the community told me that they have 500 children in their school- a mud hut with a thatched roof- and 250 of them are orphans. We participated in a service with them with their childrens choir and us doing a drama and evangelical teaching. They impromptu asked me to preach so I shared a message from the parable of the mustard seed. It was quite the day.

The rest of our team stayed at the orphanage and loved on and played with and were crawled all over by kids. Today the other half of our team goes to a village and half stay here at the orphanage, essentially trading places.

Then Friday, half our team will stay here and half will go to another village. Those who stay will do a drama and message in a school and then work in the orphanage. Those who go will go by boat to another village.

Saturday we will be all going by boat to a village together.

Sunday we go to church and then visit one of the orphans families and then a boat trip to see the local monkeys. Should be a blast.

Pray for our team that God would give us the strength we need and for a great week of ministry to the communities and orphanage here we are working with. Our students are having the time of their life. Sarah got sick this morning and so did my two oldest boys. Please pray that God will continue to protect us so we can spend more time ministering and less time throwing up.

I’ll try and post more by Sunday and even see if I can get some pics uploaded.

I fried the power supply to my computer with a bad electrical connection two nights ago. So I thought I would not be able to do any pictures anymore to save power since I was running on battery only, however believe it or not, William, the orphanage manager, found me another mac power supply. GO FIGURE. Thank you Jesus.

It’s so good to read these. I’ll be praying for your sick team members. That is no fun. I hope that this experience will be life changing for your boys, and memorable. . .not just memories of throwing up. Love you guys. –Cass

WoW I’m soo proud of all of you. It sounds like everyone is getting involved and doing everything you set out to do. I’m sorry there won’t be more pictures for a while. It really helps to feel connected. Give a great big hug to my girl and tell her I’m actually opening my computer every day looking for the newest blog!

We are so excited for you and I look forward to reading your posts! We will pray that the TJ and Tyler feel better soon and Sarah too. What a incredible experience! May God work through you in amazing ways! Love you all!Jill, Will, Brooke, Mia and Luke

My Treasured friends… God is working through you sick or not sick. Hang in there boys!! We are praying for your safety and health. Love reading your blog and feeling like I am right there with you. Miss you all tons. Hugs from Idaho!!